Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 13, 2018. Thirteen years ago today, a California congressman issued a press release denying any impropriety in a sketchy real estate transaction. The news release came in response to an investigative story written by Marcus Stern of the Copley newspaper chain's Washington bureau and published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Copley's flagship paper and the most influential news outlet in Cunningham's congressional district.
Stern's June 12, 2005 piece was a blockbuster and it began with a bang:
“A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy ‘Duke' Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman's Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon.”
